51 Ways To Draw A Perfect Circle
by Rashaka
Summary: A drabble for every episode: a different character for each. updated: Chapter 10
1. Alphonse : Them's The Breaks

Fic Title: _51 Ways To Draw A Perfect Circle_

Fic Summary: _A drabble for every episode: the good, the bad, the happy, the sad. The dark and the bright, the smiles, the fights._

And here we embark on a collection of FMA drabbles! On for each episode, with a variety of characters, probably some repeating. Will I ever finish? Who knows. But we can start at the beginning, the best place.

* * *

Episode 1 – Al

* * *

**Them's The Breaks**

**  
**

"I'd really like some tape," Alphonse Elric said, though no one could hear him. "Tape would be nice, to seal all my gaps. And maybe a scrub brush."

If Al were able to sigh, he would have. After all, he couldn't exactly move to improve his situation himself, entrenched as he was and slowly filling up like an hourglass.

Moments like these were by far Al's least favorite part of professional government-funded questing.

"Al! Al!"

Edward's mildly panicky voice, filtering through the sand.

_Finally._

That brother of his was so inattentive. It was worrisome.

"Over here! I sank again!"


	2. Rose : Severence

* * *

Episode 2 – Rose

* * *

**Severence  
**

A lie? All of it was truly a lie then?

Kane was never coming back. Jammel from the bakery shop never _had_ come back. Nor had Sandra, or Les. They were "brought to life" with alchemy and alchemy brought life to no one. Rose felt soul-sick.

Her friends and her neighbors were nothing but pawns, and their prophet nothing but a leech for power. Miracles didn't exist, and God didn't shine in the sky. Edward and Alphonse had made their point, and she felt thirteen times a fool.

The true Cornello raised his hands to the sunset, and birds took wing.


	3. Trisha : Inheritance

* * *

Episode 3 – Trisha

* * *

**Inheritance**

On the way home Ms. Elric turned the doll in her hands, examining the texture of the cloth, the darkly porcelain face. Ahead of her the two boys trudged down the path, still confused and sulking over why their best friend didn't want their present.

She felt for Winry—fear of alchemy wasn't an unhealthy way to look at things, when it came down to it. Sometimes it was better, even, to recognize alchemy early on as something to be feared. But she was proud of her sons nonetheless.

Like every gift he had ever made_ her_, it was beautiful.


	4. Edward : Come of Age

* * *

Episode 4 – Edward

* * *

**Come of Age**

There was a rose, and then a ribbon, and Edward moved faster than he'd ever moved in his life, and

_oh god he's dead I killed a man he's dead_

it was just for a moment, and then the moment passed, and Clause was safe, and

_he's dead the blue lady's crying and Majahal's dead_

and Edward was stepping back, breathing deeply, and Clause was staring and Al didn't know what to do

_not my fault the sword fell not my fault_

and Edward held his brother's enormous cold hand with both of his

_dead_

and waited for the grown-ups.


	5. Hughes : Married Life

* * *

Episode 5 – Hughes

* * *

**The Married Life**

Maes Hughes leaned back in his chair, imagining a lonely hormone-driven woman mad with lust just waiting for him to get off this damn slow train. Wives were fantastic. Roy needed to get himself one.

"She's like this angel that descended to Earth and—"

Click.

"It cut me off again? I can't get anything done with these damn phones giving me problems."

"_You're the damn problem!"_

Farman. Party-pooper. Good shot, but the poor man had a stick up his ass. He needed a wife too.

Click. Now came the fun part.

"So, _Roy_, what if the baby's born tomorrow?"


	6. Tucker : Life Study

* * *

Episode 6 – Tucker

* * *

**Life Study**

Shou Tucker could not stop staring at the younger one's armor. There was something off about the way the voice echoed through it, as if it had all the time to bounce around inside before drifting out the mouthpiece.

"You have a wonderful home, Mr. Tucker. We're grateful you've agreed to let us study with you."

No—sound didn't drift out of the helmet so much as hang in the air around it. Fascinating.

"I am glad to have visitors." What'd this boy do to his voice to make it project like that permanently?

"We're eager to learn."

Human alchemy?

Interesting.


	7. Nina: Daddy’s Gonna Buy You A Mockingbir...

Episode 7- Nina

* * *

**Daddy's Gonna Buy You A Mockingbird**

Nina Tucker stood in front of the living room bookshelf, staring at the thick spines. Nina loved books. She couldn't read yet, just look at pictures, but she was certain that when she was old enough to read like her papa and her new big brothers, she'd read all the time. Books were the fabric of her home, woven into shelves and study rooms and tabletops.

She turned to smile when her father entered the room, picking her up in one arm and cradling two volumes in the other.

"Nina, would you like to see what Papa's been working on all this time?"


	8. Roy: Advice

* * *

Episode 8 - Roy

* * *

**Advice**

He hated the rain. Not because it made his alchemy useless—because it was fucking wet and got in your eyes and made everything swirl together if you didn't blink fast enough. Because it beat down on you like something angry and cold and relentless. Because it made blood run that much thinner when seeping over brick and cobblestones.

He hated standing here, dripping with it, while telling a twelve-year-old boy that life sucks and then you die, only sometimes little children die even sooner because of people exactly like you.

Chin up, little alchemist. It's going to get a whole lot worse.


	9. Lyla : Great Expectations

* * *

Episode 9 - Lyla

* * *

**Great Expectations**

"You bastard... You're going to get it today!"

With the poise of a dancer, Lyla stepped in front of her employer. The array-inscribed pendant on her necklace began to spin in its perch, and in moments the "incident" was dealt with. She let out a deep breath, and felt the boredom sink into her bones.

The day she got out of this dead-end town would be the happiest day of her life. If she could only raise the money to get to Central, she could find a mentor and pass that exam.

"Good job, Lyla."

Best of all, no more Yoki.


	10. Detective : A Tale As Old As Time

* * *

Episode 10 – Detective

* * *

**A Tale As Old As Time**

Aquroya's finest detective stepped away from the wreckage of the prison transport vehicle, holding palm to temple and groaning.

Yet another insultingly easy escape.

More city property destroyed.

More sensationalism in tomorrow's newspaper.

And now the state alchemist had left town as well.

End result?

More professional humiliation come morning.

This case had gone long past exciting and was into the stage of real old, real fast. He'd had just too much fucking humiliation from that damn fucking woman.

Well he wasn't going to take it any more.

"I'LL CATCH THAT DAMN THIEF, OR MY NAME ISN'T DETECTIVE ZENIGATA THE TWENTY-SEVENTH!"


End file.
